Total pages in book: 230
Estimated words: 217798 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1089(@200wpm)___ 871(@250wpm)___ 726(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 217798 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1089(@200wpm)___ 871(@250wpm)___ 726(@300wpm)
She didn’t have to love Kash. She merely had to be a good partner to him. Perhaps some people found their true love in the form of another human being, but Day could find it in helping her people.
“No, Your Majesty. I’m not in love. I don’t think I’ve ever been in love.” Except she’d thought she’d loved Kash. Those months with him had haunted her for years. She could still remember how it felt to brush her lips against his.
If the queen knew how she spent some of her nights, would she want her as a daughter-in-law?
“There are personal things we should talk about.” Day couldn’t not be honest.
“Is this about that club you go to? And the one in Paris? What was it called?”
Mrs. Indrus piped up. “The Velvet Collar.”
“Yes, that is the one.” The queen’s eyes lit with mirth. “Pashmi and I looked at their website. Very interesting place.”
The queen’s servant giggled a bit behind her hand and suddenly looked years younger.
And Day found herself blushing again. “It’s for relaxation. I rarely indulge myself physically.”
“Well, that’s good because I’m sure that my son does. He needs a good spanking, if I do say so myself. You both like those clubs. That’s one thing you have in common. Excellent. It’s a start.” The queen clapped her hands together. “Now let’s talk about your wedding. Pashmi, could you get us some tea and then perhaps you will join us? You have such a good eye when it comes to colors. We shall fill the palace with flowers.”
Pashmi strode away to do the queen’s will and Day realized she was trapped.
Utterly and completely trapped in a cage she couldn’t force her way out of because there was a piece of her that still wanted to know if it could work.
That was the most dangerous trap of all.
CHAPTER 2
Kash strode into the palace, well aware every single person he met had taken one look at him and fled the other way. The guards at the gates hadn’t questioned him, simply waved him by as they attempted to not look him in the eyes. The maids and servants he’d passed hadn’t offered a single greeting.
The only person standing between him and his mother now would be the lord chamberlain. He had heard one of the maids calling for him. It wouldn’t do any good. Hanin Kota had taken over the running of the palace a few years before the king and Shray had been killed. He was a somewhat cold man who lived for formality. His family had worked for the Kamdars for decades. Kash had always thought it would be fun to fire him, but he’d deferred to his mother’s wishes.
If Hanin gave him trouble, Kash would boot him out. There was a freedom in what his mother had done.
He was angry. As angry as he could ever remember being.
“You might chill out before you scare the shit out of the entire palace, Kash.” Jesse Murdoch easily kept up with him.
He ignored his so-called guard. Murdoch wasn’t alone. The Boomer was with him. Yes, Kash would fire him, too. All of them.
The one thing in his life that should have been his choice was being taken from him. Everywhere he turned he had responsibility weighing on him. Lately he’d tried to handle it by giving more and more to parliament. They seemed happy. Now he was supposed to give up his much-needed time away and take some unknown wife and stay at home and deliver a brood of mewling children to his mother?
Chapal could have the crown. He’d decided that after the Brit had explained the situation he was in. His mother had used some antiquated rule of law to force his hand? Oh, she would find out he couldn’t be forced into this.
“This is a real palace. It’s cool.” The mass of muscular flesh the others called Boomer was smiling at everything like this was all one long vacation. “Hello, ma’am. Real nice place you got here.”
“She’s a servant,” Kash shot back. “The palace doesn’t belong to her.”
The young woman, who had to be all of twenty, turned back to her dusting, but not before he’d seen the way her skin had flushed with shame.
When had he taken to hurting young women with careless words? He wasn’t this man. He was a charmer. He never shamed anyone for their position in society. Bloody hell. He was going mad.
“Please accept my apologies,” he said quickly before turning back toward his destination. The queen mother’s wing was off to the left.
“Don’t you mind him,” Boomer was saying to the maid. “He’s a massive asshole.”
“He’s the king,” the woman whispered.
“King Asswipe,” Boomer replied. “I was told he was cool and everything, but he’s real mean. He even sent away the lady with the mints on the airplane. Do you happen to know where the kitchen is? I’m a little hungry.”